Hot New Tools to Get You Through the Academic Job Posting Season

Many late stage doctoral students and those who plan to find new academic employment eagerly review job postings as this year’s academic job market begins to heat up. If you are on the market, USASBE offers a comprehensive set of job-hunting tools (click here to view the web page). On the USASBE web page we offer a range of filters and search options to identify both job postings and potential candidates. USASBE members can use the page to upload their CVs and institutions can use it to post job openings. Additionally, the USASBE Twitter account is used to broadcast job postings, so be sure to follow us and get the most up-to-date information on this years job market.

In addition to using websites such as the USASBE Careers page that post academic jobs, those who are “in the know” will often supplement their search with the infamous job seeker sheet. The job seeker sheet is an open source Google doc where people seeking academic jobs in the field of entrepreneurship or management share job postings. People also post information regarding where specific universities are in their search process (e.g. scheduled campus visits or position filled), and discuss job-hunting related issues.

The job seeker sheet is a great resource, and many of us likely have nostalgic memories of anxiously reviewing the sheet for job news. However, as the number of users continues to grow, some of us question, “Has the job seeker sheet outgrown its purpose?” This is exactly what Dr. Jason Lortie thought when he decided to create mgmtphdjobs.com a website designed to replicate the job seeker sheet in a way that overcomes many of the inherent limitations of Google docs. I interviewed Jason in order to learn more about the new site. Jason is a visiting professor at Ole Miss and recently took a position as an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Florida Gulf Coast University—as it turns out Jason is a semi-regular member of USABE too.

Jason has a background in webpage design, which helped him address the problem, as he stated:

“I come from a background of web design, and I always looked at it [the job seeker sheet] as it could be a lot easier if it was all just forums and you could actually add a lot of usability with it too.”

Jason also took the time to explain why academics might want to use the new site rather than the job seeker sheet.

"[Mgmtphdjobs.com] gives you all the benefits of the Google doc in terms of up-to-date information, community sourced information, the same kind of social community aspects, without the hassle of the hard type of usability aspects that you have with the Google doc. You can't sort it [the Google doc], you can't filter it the way you want to, things get deleted accidentally all the time, it loads very slowly. [Mgmtphdjobs.com] really is the idea of “let's keep all of the positive aspects, while eliminating all of the burdens for the end user.”

At the end of the interview Jason explained his driving motivation to create the site.

"I think it [job seeker sheet] has morphed into something more than what whoever came up with the idea of using the Google doc intended, it has outgrown exactly what it was put together for. If I can provide something that works a little bit better then I am all for it. I don't know if there is a way to make money off of it or if I am even interested in making money off of it. I went through the [job search] process and it was awful, if I can make it easier for anyone else going through it—here is my contribution to society."